Chaplain's Cross

[RonR]

A somewhat standard Germain type cross for Nuns and Priests and the remote chance that it may have been for a Military Chaplain.....

...........

[RonR]

ooo

[ZacharyB]

Very nice piece. I see no reason to discount this item as a proper Chaplain's Cross. Beautiful pics by the way as well. Thanks for sharing.

Z

[darekm]

Was there an official version of Chaplain cross in the Imperial era, or did they just use what they had? I know there was an official TR version.

[HPL2008]

Was there an official version of Chaplain cross in the Imperial era, or did they just use what they had? I know there was an official TR version.

The July/August 2012 issue of the Internationales Militaria-Magazin had an article on the neck crosses worn by German military chaplains (Feldgeistliche) in WWI and WWII.

According to that article, official designs for these crosses - which were officially designated as Feldpektoralen - were issued in 1913 as part of the regulations for the field grey uniforms worn by army chaplains. Allegedly, Kaiser Wilhelm II was personally involved in the crosses' design. They were different for the Protestant and Catholic denominations: Both were metal crosses with lily petal arms. The Protestant Cross bore a Chi-Rho christogram ( ⳩ ) at its center, the Catholic cross was adorned with a corpus. Also, the Catholic version had a black inner cross (possibly, a wooden inlay). A period handbook for Catholic chaplains gave the dimensions of the cross as being 10.5 cm x 7 cm, with the arms being 1 cm wide. Unfortunately, documentation on these crosses is scarce; no photographs of the official Proben (sample pieces) are known to exist, and drawings often lack detail.

The issue crosses were centrally procured through the proper military authorities and had to be returned upon a chaplain's retirement or discharge.

Period photographs of chaplains wearing what appear to be the regulation army-issue crosses exist, but a wide variety of other types was also worn, which may have had to do with procurement problems and/or personal preference.

(The crucifix worn by the Catholic priest seen in the photo above is a typical example for such a non-regulation cross. Crosses of this type are often sold as chaplain's crosses to increase their selling price, but unless they come with solid provenance, there is no way to know if one was actually worn by a chaplain.)

By the way, there were also Jewish chaplains (Feldrabbiner) who wore a Star of David instead of a cross.

There's a thread on the WRF with period photographs of WW I chaplains ( https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/imper...graphs-533284/ ) that nicely illustrate the wide range of crosses worn. I've gone through the photographs there and selected two that, in my opinion, show the official patterns in wear.

Protestant (left), Catholic (right):

Feldgeistliche.jpg

[Chip M]

Ron, Did the cross come with the photo or were you just supremely lucky?

[darekm]

Thank you for the great information!

[pauke]

IMO the cross shown with the EK 2 is a standard Catholic type cross missing the scroll where the upper rivet is which would have the inscription "INRI" on it as seen on the Feldgeistlicher above on the right. The skull and crossed bones insignia at the bottom is an optional item sometimes seen, sometimes not, and is not an "essential" part of the cross design. The only design "input" the Kaiser might have had was simply saying Protestant chaplains wear Protestant style crosses and Catholic chaplains wear Catholic style crosses as seen in both of the above photos. None of the crosses shown would fit the IMO odd measurements of 10.5 by 7 cm which could be expressed as "3 by 2" and does not look well proportioned. It would be most interesting to see the chaplain's booklet mentioned.

[motojosh]

I've got a similar example. The seller stated it was owned by a Military Chaplain, but I don't have any proof of that. It came with a Catholic field hymn book unit marked to the 4th Garde-Feldartillerie-Regiment.

[HPL2008]

None of the crosses shown would fit the IMO odd measurements of 10.5 by 7 cm which could be expressed as "3 by 2" and does not look well proportioned.

I beg to differ. I took a clipping of the left photograph and resized the picture until the cross was exactly 10.5 cm tall on my monitor at 100 % enlargement. At that size, the width was 7.0 cm. A perfect match.


Feldpektorale.png